Roland S-50 Sampler Factory Released Disks

The Roland Samplers of this era were well supported by not only the company but also by the third party sound produced that were in the market at this time.  I think the other key to these sample libaries having longevity is that they are still very useable.  Plus they could be used on the Roland S-50, Roland W-30, Roland S-330 and Roland S-550.  You just required a small conversion utility to move between the sampler platforms.

Roland S-50 Operating System Disks

In order to use any of these samplers you had to first load in the operating system.  The original version of this disk would have been in the box when this synthesiser was new.

Following release Roland updated the operating system to SYS-502 v2.02.  This is the version to have with your sampler.

If you cannot find the Roland S-50 Operating System SYS-502 disk, you can buy it here.

Roland S-50 Library Converter Disk

As I stated above, the sample libraries released for the various platforms could be used on this sampler with the aid of a conversion utility.  The Roland S-50 Library Converter Disk SYS-505 disk allows you to undertake this conversion.

My advice is create a duplicate of the origianal disk before converting it, just in case something goes wrong!

If you cannot find the Roland S-50 Library Converter SYS-505 disk, you can buy it here.

Sample Libaries L-501 to L-509

These are the official sample libraries that were released by Roland in the 1980's to accompany the samplers.  They came each L-50x was a box containing 5 disks that followed a theme.  The boxes were:

• L-501

  • Electric Piano 1

  • Electric Piano 2 & Clavi 1

  • Harpsicord 1,2 & Pipe Organ 1-3

  • Electric Organ vol.1 

  • Synthesizer vol.1

• L502

  • Brass vol.1 

  • Sax vol.1

  • Sax vol. 2

  • Woodwind vol. 1

  • Woodwind vol. 2

• L-503

  • Latin Percussion vol. 1

  • Mallet vol.1

  • Orchestra vol. 1

  • Effects vol. 1

  • Stereo Effects vol. 1

• L-504

  • Acoustic Guitar vol. 1

  • Electric Guitar vol. 1

  • Electric Bass vol. 1

  • Wood Bass 1 & Harp 1,2

  • Strings vol. 1

• L-505

  • Koto vol. 1

  • Shamisen vol. 1

  • Shamisen vol. 2

  • Shakuhachi vol. 1

  • Yokobue vol. 1

• L-506

  • Japanese Percussion vol. 1

  • Japanese Percussion vol. 2

  • Biwa vol. 1

  • Gagaku vol. 1

  • Gagaku vol. 2

• L-507

  • Indian Strings vol. 1

  • Indian Strings vol. 2

  • Indian Percussion vol. 1

  • Indian Percussion vol. 2

  • Indian Percussion vol. 3

• L-508

  • Western Strings vol. 1

  • Western Wind vol.1

  • Middle Eastern Percussion vol. 1

  • Indian Wind & Thai Gong vol. 1

  • Gamelan vol. 1

• L-509

  • Eastern Flavour vol. 1

  • Andean Wind vol. 1

  • African Flavour vol. 1

  • Latin Percussion vol. 2

  • Latin Percussion vol. 3

If you cannot find the Roland S-50 Library Disks (L-501 - L-509) you can buy it here.